TXST FOOTBALL
Football season officially started for the Texas State Bobcats as the team hit the field for the start of fall camp.
Head Coach G.J. Kinne was proud of the team, noting how being in his second year at Texas State has made things easier.
“I thought it was a really good day,” Kinne said. “It’s the best first day I had as a head coach probably because it’s the second year at the same place. The coaches know what I’m thinking. The players, for the most part, know how to do things. So today was a really good day. We were healthy. It wasn’t sloppy, and they stayed up. We have been preaching the small details, and the guys have really bought into that.”
Though the team started fall camp, the Bobcats have been working throughout the summer with the NCAA loosening the rules on workouts during the period.
While Kinne has the ability to work further with the offense and defense, the second year head coach believes that the period should be more focused on development.
“Now that you can do more within the summer, coaching wise, most people go out there and practice,” Kinne said. “But we didn’t do that because that is not what I believe in. The summertime is about lifting, running, getting stronger and developing. We did some indy drills and some real walkthroughs to make sure we could operate, but as far as 7-on-7 drills we just didn’t do it. We have plenty of time for that out there today, so [summer] is more about development and getting bigger, faster, stronger.”
As the Bobcats enter the fall camp, there is a sense of change in the air for the team other than the ongoing construction happening at UFCU Stadium.
With eight starters returning both on offense and defense, the Bobcats are the favorites to not only win the Sun Belt West Division but potenially win the conference and clinch a berth in the expanded College Football Playoff.
One of the starters returning is wide receiver Kole Wilson, who caught 66 passes for 747 yards and eight touchdowns.
As the expectations of the team are rising and being fueled by the preseason hype, Wilson is not worried about them.
“We don’t worry about [expectations],” Wilson said. “I know Coach likes to call it Rat Poison, so we don’t worry about it. We work on stuff we need to work on. The expectations are cool, but it will be a lot worse if we didn’t meet those expectations. What we did last year was cool, but 8-5 is not cool to me personally. 8-5 in the first year is cool, but we are trying to go undefeated.”
It is also in those high expectations and trying to match or exceed them that Kinne feels the most comfortable.
“I’m used to winning, and I am a competitor,” Kinne said. “When people talked about how we were picked to win in the west [last year], my first thought was, ‘Are you kidding me.’ Now that we are first in the West it’s more like ‘Ok good, let’s go’. That is the mindset we have. It doesn’t matter where you are picked, but there is a certain amount of respect as a competitor that you want.”
An aspect that the team, specifically offense, is trying to work on from last year is turnovers, which cost the Bobcats some of their losses.
“We want to be explosive, but the biggest thing for us is ball security,” Kinne said. “We were 129th in turnovers, but we had the No. 1 offense in the Sun Belt. We just have to clean up the turnovers and the self-inflicted wounds. If we can do that, we have a chance to do anything we want to do.”
Texas State starts the season at home against the Lamar Cardinals. Kickoff is set for Saturaday Aug. 31 at 7 p.m.
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Head Coach G.J. Kinne enters his second year at Texas State. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
Texas State has moved their on the field workouts to the grass practice fields due the ongoing turf renova- Daily Record photo by Colton McWilliams tion happening at UFCU Stadium. The field will be ready before the start of the 2024 season.
